Fat girl living in a skinny world

Prepare to be angered by this article. It is about an Ohio doctor/surgeon who was allowed to sexually harass his coworkers for more than 30 years. Terrible, horrible stuff. On top of that, he botched a hernia repair – six times! – and left the patient so damaged that she can’t even lift a bag of groceries. His excuse for the woman’s problems? Obesity.

Obesity my big fat butt. Nowhere has it been documented that six surgeries are needed to repair a hernia. Obesity can’t account for sepsis, which is an unchecked infection that occurs from poor medical care. And who knows if the patient was actually obese? A good surgeon would have been able to work around the extra fat if she carried any.

But more importantly, why was the doctor so quick to blame his mistakes on the patient’s size? Is it because obesity has become society’s whipping boy? It’s not okay to denigrate others for being too tall or too short, too white or too black, but it is okay to say someone is “too fat.” What is “too fat,” anyway? As posted on The Rotund, “fat” is nebulous.